We are back with another Marvel video today, but this time, we have given it a mythical spin. Amatsu-Mikaboshi, a being from the Marvel cosmos who was influenced by Japanese mythology, is the subject of today’s discussion.
He is more frequently referred to as the Chaos King. He made his initial appearance in Thor: Blood Oath #6, but his impact on the 2006 miniseries Ares was greater. He fights gods and celestial creatures as they are minute particles of dirt.
He is now among the most lethal Marvel characters as a result. In today’s video, we will look at this character’s mythological roots in Japan as well as his origins in the Marvel multiverse.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi From Japanese Mythology
Amatsu-Mikaboshi, often referred to as the “Dread Star” or “August Star of Heaven,” is the deity of evil and the stars, particularly the pole star, in Japanese mythology. Amenokagaseo, which translates to “Scarecrow Male of Heaven” or “Brilliant Male,” is another name for him in Japanese mythology.
He was formerly a malevolent Shinto god. It is common in Japan to refer to Amatsu-Mikaboshi as the “god of evil,” which implies that he is a Satanic figure; however, this is not entirely correct. According to Shintoism, he is not a “god” or a “evil,” but rather a primordial energy that existed before this planet was created. This is also true because Shintoism does not believe in “Satan.”
Under the influence of Chinese Buddhism, Amatsu-Mikaboshi was also connected to Myken, which was either the pole star or Venus. Later, he was united with Ama-no-mi-naka-nushi, the god of all stars and literally translated as “Divine Lord of the middle skies.”
According to some tales, he was born from Kagutsuchi’s blood. In the Nihon Shoki, he is briefly mentioned as having been subdued by Takemikazuchi during the latter’s invasion of the nation of Izumo. Sometimes people confuse him with Kojiki’s Takeminakata. He only occurs in the Nihonshoki (the Chronicles of Japan), nevertheless, when it is mentioned that Ashihara no nakatsukuni was captured. He is absent from Kojiki (The Records of Ancient Matters).
Despite being detailed in Eastern mythology, Amatsu-Mikaboshi is rarely mentioned in any of the often recognised works of East Asian mythology, hence his traits and qualities are frequently vague or untrustworthy in the writings. Due to the dearth of references in ancient sources, attempts to define or characterise him are generally ineffective. He is believed to be a primordial vacuum and may have even been the only power in the universe at one time. He was in charge of the cosmos, if only because there was nothing else. Although his power was limited when the current cosmos was born, it never completely disappeared. Instead, his aura or traces are still visible.
Another legend claims Amatsu-Mikaboshi is one of the flawed kids Izanami and Izanagi threw out. In either case, Amatsu-Mikaboshi is IN the world but also not OF the world. Kind of like an alien on Earth. He does not appear to have a specific role or responsibility. Even without a physical body to be present in, he can exist. He exudes bitterness, icy rage, and disenfranchisement. He doesn’t have any shrines and doesn’t really matter to the typical person. He is not a ghost one can talk to directly but is rather seen as an abstract and esoteric presence in the cosmos.
According to what has been deduced and cobbled together from old Japanese tales, Amatsu-Mikaboshi is a Dark Force that existed before the cosmos, ruling alone in complete darkness and dominion. He is not a tangible god like Amaterasu or Susanoo. This, however, turned out to be false in a way since Amatsu-Mikaboshi was not the chaos itself but rather a piece of the primordial chaos that existed before the cosmos.
We know this because the confrontation between God and Chaos, also known as the Big Bang, happened. After the darkness was vanquished, fragments of it dispersed and managed to elude God and his angels. Thus, Amatsu-Mikaboshi is a fragment of one of these pieces. He made an effort to restore the darkness, but for a fleeting moment, the Dark Force’s rigid control was broken by the movement of In and Yo, the yin and yang forces, resulting in the creation of the cosmos and the active chaos of life and movement that subsequently gave rise to the gods and humans.
Although the original solidity of darkness had been eliminated, its remnants still lived on in all beings’ hearts and as what gives rise to human desires and emotions. Amatsu-Mikaboshi is an overwhelmingly dominating power that thrives on human emotions that can lead to social, emotional, or even bodily ruin.
For instance, the residue of Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s can have a negative impact when success is desired, since it might result in greed and a hunger for power which is potentially lethal. Because of its dark undertones, love for another person might turn into obsession or jealousy.
In subsequent years, it was alleged that some beings with evil or demonic natures were tied to Amatsu-Mikaboshi in a way that made them slaves to his power. Oni, Ama-no-Jaku, and demons were all supposed to be natural elements that succumb to Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s passion, as did souls that died with strong attachments and returned to harm the living in a more direct way than mere avarice or desire while living, except the souls would become a physical manifestation of these temptations and powers.
According to legend, the ultimate objective was to completely destroy everything by dissolving everything back into chaos, allowing Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s static, dominating power to reappear. Marvel has taken this same legend as its objective when creating the story of the Chaos King. Let us look at his origins in the Marvel multiverse now.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s Dark Backstory from Marvel
Oblivion, who is a cosmic being and the source of Death that precedes the Marvel multiverse and embodies the nothingness that existed even before the cosmos started, gave rise to the being known as Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Amatsu-Mikaboshi, or more commonly known as the Chaos King, is a dark counterpart to Eternity, another Marvel character whose creation drained the Chaos King of much of its strength and caused it to be merged into the Shinto cosmology and is known as “Amatsu-Mikaboshi.”
The Chaos King is an embodiment of the primordial darkness and chaos that existed before the cosmos. As per Shinto cosmology, he is said to have ruled over the Earth. During his rule, it was nothing but a formless void with only darkness in it. This was the case until the elder God, Gaea, took the form of Izanami, while a young Amatsu-Kami named Izanagi created the islands in Japan from the Void using a divine Jewelled Spear, thereby displeasing Amatsu-Mikaboshi.
The evil force attacked Izanami, Izanagi, and their heavenly offspring, the Amatsu-Kami, who were eventually worshiped as gods by the people of Japan. Ultimately, the dark force was imprisoned in Yomi, the netherworld, where he spent ages gathering an army of Oni, Shinma demons, and other such monsters.
We now come to the story arcs. The first one is that of the Warriors Three. The Warriors Three is a trio of Asgardian warriors and Thor’s closest friends since childhood. They initially came into contact while participating in Thor’s mission to repair the fractured Odinsword. The Warriors Three vanished with Asgard when Ragnarok destroyed it. Thor, however, rediscovered them among the remains of three African refugee camp guards.
However, they accidentally murdered a giant who had transformed from his original self into that of an aquatic beast and were then put on trial for it. They were ordered to obtain a number of challenging artifacts from numerous pantheons and deliver them to the deceased giant’s father as punishment. This list of artifacts included the Kusanagi, which was a magical Grasscutter sword, which Amatsu-Mikaboshi was defending.
Next is the story arc of the Creation of the Ebon Samurai. After the Silver Samurai murdered Japanese police officer Kioshi Keishicho and ended up in the netherworld of Yomi, Amatsu-Mikaboshi met him and promised to resuscitate Kioshi so he could exact retribution. When Kioshi agreed, Amatsu-Mikaboshi bound him to a shinma demon, who then took the form of a katana with an almost impenetrable blade and black samurai armor, thus creating the Ebon Samurai.
However, the most significant of all his appearances has been that in Ares: God of War. Herein, Amatsu-Mikaboshi intended to further his power by seizing Olympus and destroying the Olympian gods by taking advantage of the trail of confusion and chaos left behind by the destruction of Asgard and the Norse pantheon. As we move forward, we will see that Amatsu-Mikaboshi had a thing for destroying pantheons and Gods. He wanted to force all pantheons to submit to him after the Olympians had been vanquished.
He had almost defeated and captured the Olympians all because Ares declined to lend a helping hand to the other Olympians. Why so? Well, because he was still resentful of how the other Olympians had treated him, and he was also upset about the Death and destruction people partook under his name. So, he started living on Earth as a normal human being. He was a contractor on Earth, and he even had a little son named Alexander.
Zeus, however, kidnapped Alexander and took him to Olympus out of desperation for his father’s assistance and a desire to provoke Ares into action. Obviously, nothing gets an Olympian as riled up as a kidnapping, so, Ares would have come. After Alexander was kidnapped, he was given to Achilles and his Myrmidons so that they could take care of him.
Meanwhile, Hermes, the Messenger of Gods, attempted to convince an incensed Ares to talk with Zeus after the kidnapping to retrieve his son. However, things changed after Amatsu-Mikaboshi had completely taken control of the war, the Olympians needed Ares to come back and fight, but Ares was only concerned about his son. Hermes persisted in getting them both to Achilles’ castle, where they had been keeping Alexander. Except, there was a slight problem: the castle had been demolished, and Alexander was gone. This time, he was kidnapped by Amatsu-Mikaboshi.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s men had been able to overthrow the Myrmidon stronghold and kidnap Alexander and take him to Amatsu-Mikobashi’s own castle in the eastern territories while Achilles was gone. By exposing the harsh past and patricidal crimes performed by the Greek gods, Amatsu-Mikaboshi gradually started to change Alexander’s thinking. All of this was an effort to make him turn against his father and eventually turn him into a God of War who could be utilized to battle both Ares and the Greek deities.
Furious Ares reluctantly decided to join the battle after learning that his son was in the hands of the adversaries of Olympus, but this was a decision made only in order to save his son. Zeus, who was in danger of passing away during the conflict, used his last remaining might to free Alexander from Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s control. So, yes, Amatsu-Mikaboshi fatally injured the Greek God Zeus, one of the sky fathers. However, Amatsu-Mikaboshi was defeated by Alexander when he used the Grasscutter sword on him. He was subsequently vanquished and sent back to Japan’s realm of the dead.
Building up on the story of the Greek pantheon, we have the Secret Invasion. Athena of the Olympian Pantheon summoned a gathering of all the Pantheons in the city of San Francisco to assemble the “God Squad”. Amatsu-Mikaboshi was selected to represent the Amatsu-Kami and was given the opportunity to atone. He utilized his abilities alongside Tecumotzin, Atum the God Eater, Hercules, and Snowbird, to defeat the Skrull Goddess Sl’gurt in a brutal shape-shifting battle and steal a map to the Skrull gods’ realm from the demon lord Nightmare during the event.
They engaged Nightmare in combat as they traveled through the dream world to Skrull space. After Sl’gurt killed Atum, Mikaboshi attacked her, and while they battled, they each assumed the forms of the same monsters until finally assuming the form of the other. Snowbird, Hercules, and Amadeus Cho left the domain of The Skrull Gods not long after believing Amatsu-Mikaboshi had perished in battle.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi removed his Sl’gurt disguise when they left the Skrull Gods’ realm and appointed himself as the leader of their slave army, vowing that they would exact retribution. Later, the Shi’ar Gods Sharra and K’ythri were killed along with the rest of the Shi’ar Pantheon when Amatsu-Mikaboshi and his troops invaded The M’kraan Palace deep inside The M’kraan Crystal. The creature known as Glory intentionally volunteered his services to Mikaboshi at some unknown time during his travels so that he might enjoy the vast slaughters that were sure to follow.
Then Amatsu-Mikaboshi went back to the Dream Dimension known as Everinnye, where he easily sliced through Nightmare’s army and tore out his heart. Nightmare, who is shockingly somehow still alive, questioned why Amatsu-Mikaboshi had attacked him, claiming that Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s darkness is where Nightmare resides, making them almost like brothers.
Then, in what appeared to be an obviously desperate attempt to win back Amatsu-Mikobashi’s favor, Nightmare volunteered to assist him on his journey. However, Amatsu-Mikaboshi mocked Nightmare’s offer, beheaded him, and then claimed Nightmare’s authority for himself. With the exception of Hercules, Amadeus Cho, and the other Earthly Gods, he forced everyone, even Earth’s heroes, with this newfound power.
Later, Amatsu-Mikaboshi swears vengeance on the Olympians without Kami’s seals. However, he is unaware that Athena, the goddess of wisdom, is watching him via an enchanted scrying pool. Athena said her preparations had gone even better than she had anticipated.
With that cliff-hanger, we come to the Chaos War. Athena had been secretly preparing herself to fight against darkness. Amadeus Cho was told by Athena that Hercules’ power would be worthless in this fight against the darkness but that Cho’s intelligence may help them win the battle against Amatsu-Mikaboshi, who would soon descend upon the planet. Later, Hera saw Mikaboshi killing Sharra and K’ythri, the Shi’ar Gods. As we mentioned earlier, the Chaos King loves a good pantheon of Gods.
Soon after, Amatsu-Mikaboshi went and launched an attack on the Old Gods of Zenn-La with his army of enslaved deities. However, they had been waiting for him and were ready. The First Mover, also known as the One Above All, the ultimate ruler of the multiverse, all things good and full of love, who created the Marvel Universe from a void of chaos and emptiness, inferred the arrival of the Nil Star as the sign of the End Times ages ago, had notified his fellow Zenn-Lavian gods according to Thrann, the Saint of Science.
Eventually, Amatsu-Mikaboshi attacked their Cosmic Plane and swiftly annihilated them, and enslaved them to support his armies even more. He then started traveling toward Earth, murdering Impossible Man along the way. Once he defeated Nightmare and took his abilities, the majority of Earth’s human and mortal heroes were rendered helpless after they were trapped in their sleep and defeated by him.
Hercules decided to go to Eternity to fight against Amatsu-Mikaboshi. However, he declined Hercules’ request since the two, Eternity and the Chaos King, are two sides of the same coin; fighting the Chaos King would be like fighting himself, which would only lead to nothingness and that would be a win for Amatsu-Mikaboshi. Yet, he guaranteed the heroes that they would be able to destroy Amatsu-Mikaboshi on their own. This turned out to be a partial lie. Even though Satan and his son Daimon made an effort to defend Hell, Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s destruction of the Underworld and consumption of the king sent Death running from the cosmos. He was able to command an army of corpses as a result and quite literally give them hell.
He then captured the Olympians and used them to fight the newly created God Squad. He even used Zeus to defeat Galactus, the cosmic being that consumes the energies of other planets for survival. Amatsu-Mikaboshi and his army emerged from Zeus’ chest and launched a killer attack on all the divine realms in all of the Earth’s pantheons, resulting in the death of most of the gods and even various Godheads. This attack came about as a result of Hercules being duped into piercing the shields that are used to conceal the hidden Throne Room of the Council Elite’s Celestial Axis.
Amaterasu attempted to vanquish Amatsu-Mikaboshi as she had in the past, but the Amatsu-Kami and Amaterasu were no match for him. He then imprisoned them and used them to battle the God Squad. Nekra, the Grim Reaper, and the Abomination joined the battle against Doctor Strange as his new allies. During a fight, Amatsu-Mikaboshi attacked Doctor Strange from behind, causing Zom, an extra-terrestrial monster, to reawaken inside him.
He then gave him the order to pursue Marlo Chandler, Hulk’s ex-girlfriend. Doctor Strange also released Carrion Crow against the restored X-Men members to get one of Destiny’s journals, which could possibly hold the secret to defeating Amatsu-Mikaboshi.
In the end, we see Amatsu-Mikaboshi delighted in the gradual demise of his most enduring foe, Gaea, who was also the source of creation, the Goddess of soil and Earth, and the mother of the Greek Gods. Amatsu-Mikaboshi then sent Athena to assassinate her brother while the God Squad traveled to an island so that the universe might be restored, but she lost the battle.
When Hercules and the other heroes finally reached Amatsu-Mikaboshi, the entity started eating all of reality into oblivion, but what he didn’t realize was that he was instead imprisoned in a continuum universe that Amadeus and Galactus had originally intended to be the location where the population of the Earth could be evacuated. He was technically not defeated but rather banished, considering none of the Gods were powerful enough to defeat him.
What Makes Amatsu-Mikaboshi So Deadly?
Amatsu-Mikaboshi is a character that is simply undefeatable by a single entity and is one of the deadliest characters in the Marvel Universe. If Hulk and Thor are Omega level threats, Amatsu-Mikaboshi should be classified as a beyond Omega level threat.
He possesses the typical traits of Japanese deities like superhuman strength, endurance, recuperative powers, agility, speed, and durability. Amatsu-Mikaboshi, though sometimes misunderstood as one of the Amatsu-Kami, is a manifestation of living darkness coming from the primordial abyss. He appears to have immense supernatural power built into him. He can change his form and shape with the use of this supernatural energy, and he frequently assumes a female appearance to look innocent. Otherwise, he is typically shown as a dark, shadowy energy creature with a mask for a face since mythology books do not describe him very often.
He also had a high level of skill when it came to the use of powerful Japanese dark magic. This magic is a type of sorcery that appears to work quite well against the Olympians. He can project energy on a scale that at least rivals that of Zeus and Izanagi. However, his physical power is far less than that of Zeus or Izanagi and is about comparable to that of the typical Kami.
While the Japanese gods, like the Asgardians, enjoy exceptionally long lives, though they are not fully immortal like the Olympians; once they reach maturity, they tend to age very slowly, and they are three times denser than that of regular human beings. However, Amatsu-Mikaboshi is pretty much immortal since he was there before the beginning of the Marvel Multiverse.
Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s actual form is mysterious; he has lived as a black, primordial emptiness that once ruled Earth in its earliest days. He is more like a force of nature than a corporeal creature. He appears as a single golden eye with an iris that resembles a slit. An amorphous mass of black energy surrounds the eye, which Amatsu-Mikaboshi can shape into material representations of almost any shape he can think of, such as whip-like tentacles or a human body.
He can also transform into a comet, with his eye acting as the comet’s nucleus, and move at extremely high speeds. He has incredibly rapid reflexes and is resistant to the majority of ailments. Amatsu-Mikaboshi is a brilliant thinker with a mind that rivals genius levels, yet his favored strategy is to simply overwhelm opponents with the sheer quantity of his demonic foot troops. Many inhabitants of the netherworld make up his army, primarily Shinma and Oni.
He had the ability to transform his limbs into razor-sharp blades and take on the form of a fire-breathing snake, which even Apollo’s fire was not able to injure. The snake was able to strike down even the Olympian sun god in retaliation with a blast of fire. In order to accomplish other feats, such as making “shadow copies” that could avoid being discovered by powerful dark magical beings like Nightmare in the latter’s own realm, he has used powers of flight, the projection of mystical energy as image projection, teleportation, invisibility, matter manipulation, force blasts and the creation of inter-dimensional nexus points.
Even the Kami themselves are frightened and afraid of Amatsu-Mikaboshi, which is quite understandable. They consider him their fundamental opponent, especially given that he himself has massacred much of their pantheon. His power is so great that he can control several lesser demons as well as animate and manipulate corpses in large numbers at whim.
It was proven after defeating the Demogorge (which is a monster that consumed the Elder Gods) that Amatsu-Mikaboshi has the ability to kill even powerful alien deities with minimal effort. He was even able to cripple and kill Sky fathers like Zeus by pulling out his heart in a matter of seconds.
As a demonic being and the ruler of Yomi, the Japanese underworld of the Kami, Amatsu-Mikaboshi also possesses a number of abilities that allow him to seize and hold the astral bodies or soul sheaths of the recently dead people. In a minimum of one instance, Amatsu-Mikaboshi has also been demonstrated to be capable of reviving a dead mortal soul into the world of the living.
However, not all of humanity’s dead fall under his purview. The essential circumstances for him to influence a human soul are unknown, as is the specific method by which he achieves the feat. These requirements, it appears, demand that the subject surrender to his will voluntarily. It is yet unknown how a person can release himself from Amatsu-Mikaboshi’s servitude.
His powers and abilities are wide and varied. Amatsu-Mikaboshi can make Greek Gods shake in their boots. All of these powers and abilities are the reason why we have been calling him one of the deadliest villains in the Marvel Multiverse.
While towards the end, he was pushed into the new realm of darkness and nothingness, one cannot be sure if this would be the end of the character. However, it would also be really interesting to see how Marvel goes forward with the storyline and ultimately defeats eternal darkness. Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments below!